At 100%, Malta has highest energy dependency rate in the EU

Malta has come out as the EU member state with the highest energy dependency rate according to a survey by the EU's statistical office Eurostat.

Malta is closely followed by Luxembourg and Cyprus at 97% and Ireland at 85%.

The energy dependence rate shows the extent to which a country is dependent on energy imports. In the case of Malta, this rate stands at 100%. The EU average is at 53%.

According to the 2012 energy data, energy consumption across the European Union fell by 8% between 2006 and 2012.

Nuclear power and renewable energy made up half of the energy production.

The domestic production of primary energy was 794 Mtoe in the EU28 in 2012. Nuclear energy (29%), accounted for the largest share, followed by renewables (22%), solid fuels (21%), gas (17%) and oil (10%).

The five largest energy consumers in 2012 in the EU28 were Germany (319 Mtoe, -9.2% compared with 2006), France (258 Mtoe, -5.3%), the United Kingdom (202 Mtoe, -12.2%), Italy (163 Mtoe, -12.0%) and Spain (127 Mtoe, -11.9%). Together these five Member States accounted for 64% of total EU28 energy consumption and for 77% of the reduction in absolute terms between 2006 and 2012.

Between 2006 and 2012, energy consumption fell in twenty four Member States and increased only in Estonia (+11.6%), the Netherlands (+2.9%), Poland (+0.8%) and Sweden (+0.4%). The largest relative falls were recorded in Lithuania (-17.0%), Portugal (-15.2), Greece (-14.4%) and Hungary (-14.2%).

In 2012, Denmark (-3%) was the only net exporter of energy and therefore had a negative dependence rate. The Member States the least dependent on energy imports were Estonia (17%), Romania (23%), the Czech Republic (25%), Sweden (29%), the Netherlands and Poland (both 31%).

The highest energy dependence rates were registered in Malta (100%), Luxembourg and Cyprus (both 97%) and Ireland (85%). Among the five Member States consuming the largest amounts of energy, the dependence rate was highest for Italy (81%), followed by Spain (73%), Germany (61%), France (48%) and the United Kingdom (42%).

The five main energy producers in the EU28 in 2012 were France (17% of total production in the EU28), Germany (16%), the United Kingdom (15%), Poland (9%) and the Netherlands (8%) which together accounted for 64% of total energy production in the EU28.

Poland (35% of total production in the EU28) and Germany (29%) were the largest producers of solid fuel in the EU28, the United Kingdom (60%) of crude oil, the Netherlands (43%) and the United Kingdom (26%) of gas, France (48%) and Germany (11%) of nuclear energy and for renewables it was Germany (19%), France (12%), Sweden (10%), Italy (10%) and Spain (8%).